Modern cellular radiotelephones provide a high degree of convenience for the mobile user. As the technology has advanced, the size of radiotelephones has decreased to the point that many fit in a shirt pocket. Furthermore, currently available batteries allow these pocket sized radiotelephones to operate up to 24 hours.
Despite the reductions in size, the functionality of radiotelephones has increased. For example, a programmable telephone directory is a common feature on many radiotelephones today. Such a telephone directory allows the user to program in a predetermined number of telephone numbers and names (and/or other identifiers) associated with the telephone numbers. Accordingly, the user can program frequently used telephone numbers into the phone and retrieve a desired number using an associated name or other identifier, thereby eliminating the need to remember a particular number. Once retrieved, the cellular radiotelephone can automatically dial the number.
Many cellular radiotelephones have the capacity to program up to 100, and even as many as 250, telephone numbers. The radiotelephone keypad, however, is typically limited to fewer keys than there are letters so that a single key is used to input multiple letters. Furthermore, the display on most radiotelephones has only one or a few lines and may not provide enough characters to simultaneously display both a complete name and number. For these reasons, programming a large number of telephone numbers can be difficult and time consuming.
Accordingly, there continues to exist a need in the art for a cellular radiotelephone with a programmable memory which can be easily programmed.